Kari Lake and Mark Finchem go dumb and dumber-er with appeal of ballot-counting lawsuit

Republican governor candidate Kari Lake and her friend and cohort, Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, surpassed the clueless “Wayne’s World” duo of Wayne and Garth a long time ago.

Their ongoing, unfounded and completely debunked attacks on Arizona’s ballot counting process make the bumbling home invasion cranks in “Home Alone” – Harry and Marv – look like seasoned international jewel thieves.

When Lake and Finchem filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to require hand-counting only for ballots in this November’s election – without providing proof that the system had been compromised – the judge tossed the case and let the less-than-dynamic duo know that they had wandered firmly into Lloyd and Harry’s simpleminded “Dumb & Dumber” territory.

Naturally – for Lake and Finchem, anyway – this was not the end.

'Demonstrably false ... and repugnant'

Attorneys for the GOP tag team have appealed the judge’s ruling, saying they plan to take their case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In laymen’s terms, Lake and Finchem are going from “Dumb & Dumber” to dumb and dumber-er.

“We are appealing because it is absolutely critical that we have a vote counting process that gives the public complete confidence in the process,” their attorney, Timothy La Sota, said.

Also in the news: Finchem accuses former VP of orchestrating Trump coup

Meantime, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, dominated by Republicans, has asked that Lake, Finchem and their attorneys face financial sanctions.

The county’s attorneys, in court papers, said in part that Lake’s and Finchem’s “use of the Court to further a disinformation campaign and false narrative concerning the integrity of the election process in Arizona by asserting demonstrably false allegations is repugnant.”

It’s worse than that, of course. But when dealing with the justice system there is an element of decorum that must be followed.

Maybe there's a better comedic duo analogy

That “complete confidence” La Soto spoke about already exists – except in the minds of Big Lie promoters like Lake and Finchem.

The taxpayer-funded hand recount conducted by the Cyber Ninjas, a group specifically selected by Republican Arizona Senate President Karen Fann with the expectation of finding fraud, instead found that President Joe Biden’s margin of victory was even larger than the official count.

Not a shred of viable evidence has been presented in any of the court cases claiming election fraud.

And there has been no hacking of the vote-counting machines.

Perhaps because the vote-counting machines in Maricopa County are not connected to the internet.

And yet, somehow, Lake and Finchem persist.

Their legal lunacy is such that comparing them to a doltish, slapstick cinematic duo could expose a smart-alecky news columnist to a defamation lawsuit … from the producers of “Dumb & Dumber.”

Besides, using Lloyd and Harry might be the wrong comparison.

A better analogy might be Cheech & Chong.

Because you’ve just got to wonder what these people could be smoking.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake, Mark Finchem go 'dumb & dumber-er' with election lawsuit